Personal Introduction of Childhood-Adolescence

Throughout our lives, we go through many changes. Development explains our growth throughout our lifespan, from formation to death (Arbaugh & Camp, 2017). Psychologists strive to comprehend and describe why and how human beings in their entire lifespan. My parents confirmed to me that during my transition from childhood to adolescence, my desires for autonomy and independence increased. They found themselves much less excited with the indicators of my development of this increasing maturity. As mum explained, my normal developmental process from childhood to adolescence was surely confounding and frustrating even to my father, who is the most understanding and patient person. Dealing with my affinity for experimentations was the hardest aspect of parenting that my parents deal with. My parents, especially my father understood the average and healthy development of adolescents, and therefore he recognized, comprehended and appreciated important developmental landmarks of this transitional period. My parents were in a better position to guide and support me throughout this incredible, but hard period because they had knowledge and understanding about the adolescent stage (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). The provided with practical solutions and concrete advice for common challenges which usually take place during this developmental period.

Theoretical Perspectives of Development

Stage of Development According to Freud

According to Sigmund Freud, the popular psychoanalysis, children go through a psychosexual stages series which result in the adult personality development (Hopwood et al. 2011). His model explained how personality developed over the childhood course. Freud argued that character developed through childhood stages series where the id’s pleasure-seeking energies become concentrated on the specific erogenous field. The erogenous areas related to each stage serve as a pleasure source during the five psychosexual stages that are the genital, latent, phallic, anal, and oral phases. These psychosexual energies or libidos are explained as the driving forces behind behaviors.  My adolescent development stage was successful because parents approached the challenges I was facing as a teenager objectively and helped me to overcome them. They utilized rewards and praises to help overcome the problems I was faced with during this development stage. This encouraged positives results and helped me feel productive and capable.  The positive experiences during this stage served as a foundation for me to become a creative, competent, and productive adult. My parents provided the encouragements and support that I needed during this stage (Kandler & Zapko-Willmes, 2017). They did not shame, punish, or ridicule me for accidents.

Stages of development according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive evolution, during the middle childhood age, the cognitive (mental) transformations children undergo usually are more noticeable and pronounced than their physical changes (Arbaugh & Camp, 2017). The ability of children to pro-actively, consciously, and thoughtfully decide to pursue goals rather than merely reacting to the environments appears during these developmental periods. Additionally, the thinking style of children steadily becomes more flexible, logical, and organized as they enter “Concrete Operational” thinking phase of Piaget. The third in Piaget’s cognitive development theory is the concrete operational phase. The development rationale and organized thinking characterize this stage, and it lasts around seven to eleven years of age. The children gain the reversibility and conservation abilities (orientation, volume, area, number).

Nevertheless, the children are typically unable to think hypothetically or abstractly, even though they can solve the problems in logical fashions. The style of parenting was significant in my mental development. My parents ensured that I acquired the abilities to become a responsible and caring adult in society (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). Their good parenting provided that I earned good values and morals to survive in the community.

Stages of development according to Erikson

The Erikson theory explored three aspects of identities that include: social-cultural identity, self-identity (ego) and personal identification (Arbaugh & Camp, 2017). Development depends on what is carried out to children to the fifth stage. The growth mainly depends on what an individual does at the fifth stage. As an adolescent, I struggled to discover and find my own identity as I fought and negotiated to fit in and socially interact with others as well as to differentiate between wrong from right and sense of morality.  I delayed my entrance into adulthood by withdrawing from obligations and moratorium. I was successful in this stage, and therefore I do not experience confusion and upheaval of roles. I started to create a strong affiliation and devotion to my friends. Coping skills are the actions that I took to help me overcome hard situations and times by utilization of constructive and positive approaches. More specifically, I needed coping skills to tolerate dilemmas and hard moments I encountered in life. I involved other people who were positive during such scenarios, especially my father. Such individuals encouraged me to overcome difficulties. I avoided people with negative mentalities (Hopwood et al. 2011). Spending time with individuals with a positive attitude and positively viewed each case motivated me and made me successful, particularly at a time when I was down.

In later adolescence stages, I developed a sense of sexual identity (Kandler & Zapko-Willmes, 2017).  My parents met my basic needs, and I freely interacted with them. This led to trust between my parents and me.  As defined by Erikson, trust is “a fundamental trustfulness of other people as well as an essential sense of an individual’s trustworthiness. I depended on my parents, particularly the father, for comfort and sustenance. My relative comprehension of society and the world came from my parents and their interactions with me. My parents exposed me to dependable affections, warmth, and regularity. This made my view of the universe to be one of trust. My parents met my basic needs and provided environments that led to believe. The development of faith eliminated the lack of confidence, feelings of withdrawal, suspicion, and frustrations (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015).  My parents were the consistent source of affection and comfort that were reliable and dependable.

Bowlby’s Attachment

Bowlby’s Attachment evolutionary theory proposes that young ones come into the universe biologically pre-programmed to establish affections with other people since this shall assist the children to survive (Hopwood et al. 2011). The ethological theory in general and Lorenz’s imprinting study, in particular, influenced Bowlby. According to this model, the skills acquired insecure attachment relationships since childhood and present attachment relationships quality with the parents, are primary characteristics to solve developmental matters associated with adolescence. The model concentrates on relational and individual developmental processes. It suggests a structure for comprehending adolescent pathological and normative functioning as well as provides experts with a relevant intervention theory for the emergence of skills. In my adolescence, the double roles of my parent to ensure protection and comfort and promote exploration were present and were performed according to my current needs. The adolescent attachments were results of both me and the capacity of my parents to redefine our attachment relationships by taking into considerations the process of individuation, that is, developmental transformations at the emotional, social, and cognitive levels. Such relationships co-construction represented major components in developing or maintaining a safe attachment at this stage. The increasing need for distance from the parents was a striking aspect of adolescence. Time spent with parent became less critical because physical proximities were not necessary for ensuring comfort and protection. My trust in my parents’ accessibility and accessibility in times of need were significant characteristics of secure attachments during this time (Arbaugh & Camp, 2017). My parents remained accessible through verbal exchange.

Faith Development

According to Faith Development, synthetic-conventional (adolescence 12-18), abstract thinking starts where earlier narratives now get incorporated as a more interconnected story about morals and values (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). People begin viewing things from the perspectives of other individuals. Adolescents start to claim their faiths as their own. From my father, I inherited the habit of exemplifying, the sense of humor, and the skepticism before incertitude of life when I wanted to convey free thought, my liberalism, and some useful features. I inherited “the sentimentalism” from my mother, and this would imply I have great emotional feelings. I enjoyed my mother’s, unconditional love. The mother referred to me as “my golden Sigi” (Hopwood et al. 2011). This free love made me realize that when one was undeniably the preferred child of the mum, one keeps these victor feelings during his lifetime and also keeps feeling certain of sure that practically seldom does not satisfy.

Challenges and Success

I was highly vulnerable, but the bond with my parents enabled me to overcome the adolescence challenges and meet my needs. Much of my values, morals, and behaviors that I have today are substantially determined by the bonds I had with my parents (Kandler & Zapko-Willmes, 2017). For example, I had close relationships with my parents that enabled to develop good values and moral as I grew up to be an adult. My parents helped not to develop rebellious characteristics.

References

Arbaugh, J. B., & Camp, S. M. (2017). Managing growth transitions: Theoretical perspectives and research directions. The Blackwell handbook of entrepreneurship, 308-328.

Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. (2015). The life span: Human development for helping professionals (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Hopwood, C. J., Donnellan, M. B., Blonigen, D. M., Krueger, R. F., McGue, M., Iacono, W. G., & Burt, S. A. (2011). Genetic and environmental influences on personality trait stability and growth during the transition to adulthood: A three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of personality and social psychology, 100(3), 545.

Kandler, C., & Zapko-Willmes, A. (2017). Theoretical perspectives on the interplay of nature and nurture in personality development. In Personality development across the lifespan (pp. 101-115). Academic Press.

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